Joy Division

Joy Division pioneered a genre of music and defined the look and sound of the post-punk era, and thirty years after the suicide of their lead singer Ian Curtis, they remain one of the most influential bands of their generation. Between their infamous live performances and two studio albums, Joy Division set the Manchester scene alight, established Factory Records as the most influential label in pop music, and recorded some of the most enduring songs of the era.

Kevin Cummins began his career just as the band formed, and for the few short years of their existence was given closer access to them than any other photographer. This monograph collects nearly a hundred of his defining images of the band---sensitive photographs that capture their quiet introspection off stage, their close relationships as band mates, and their legendary energy in live performance---and supplements his iconic work with an unprecedented collection of new photographs of the band's instruments, Ian Curtis's handwritten lyrics, set lists, album artwork, and other rare ephemera.

With a foreword by early acolyte Jay McInerney and a conversation recorded especially for the book between Kevin Cummins and Bernard Sumner, iconic musician and founding member of joy Division, this is the most definitive celebration of the band ever published.

Since he began his career photographing bands for the New Musical Express in the late 1970s, Kevin Cummins' iconic portraits of musicians as diverse as Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Courtney Love, and David Bowie have graced magazine covers, galleries, and bedroom walls the world over. His photographs are included in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A in London and have been published in several monographs, including Juvenes and Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain. He was born in Manchester, has lived in London since 1987, but retains strong links with the northwest of England.

Bernard Sumner is a founding member of Joy Division and New Order. One of the most prolific and respected musicians of his generation, he has gone on to form the bands Electronic and Bad Lieutenant, and has played, recorded, and produced with such artists as 808 State, Chemical Brothers, the Happy Mondays, Doves, Pet Shop Boys, and Primal Scream.

The author of seven novels and two collections of essays on wine, Jay McInerney is a regular contributor to New York, The New York Times Book Review, The Independent and Corriere della Sera. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, and Granta. In 2006, Time cited his 1984 debut, Bright Lights, Big City, as one of nine generation-defining novels of the twentieth century. In 2009, he published How it Ended, New and Collected Stories. He was the recipient of the 2006 James Beard Foundation's M. F. K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award, and his novel The Good Life received the Grand Prix Litteraire de Deauville in 2007. He lives in Manhattan and in Bridgehampton, New York.

Kevin Cummins is the definitive chronicler of Manchester music. His photographs have appeared in the NME, Melody Maker, The Face, Mojo, and Rolling Stone, and his work has been exhibited at galleries around the world.

Bernard Sumner is a founding member of Joy Division and New Order.

Jay McInerney is the author of such novels as Bright Lights, Big City and The Good Life.